Saturday, March 6, 2010

Hope and Acceptance

A lot of thought has been given to these two concepts lately. Our granddaughter Bekah's illness and recent near death has prompted me to rethink hope and acceptance rather than hope vs acceptance.

When someone we love is critically ill, it's natural to hope, to pray that all things will resolve, sooner rather than later, too! When it is a little child how much stronger that desire for a quick resolution to the issue, the illness becomes. Even as a child myself in grade school, I was taught that God hears all prayers and answers them. Sometimes the answer is no, or not yet, or are you sure that's what you want? That I believe is an answer geared to a childish mind, and yet sometimes as an adult that is as far as we, I, can go. I only know I want a child's suffering to end while at the same time knowing full well that all sad and painful things do NOT end with miracle cures or recoveries.

So how does one have hope, and yet be willing to accept the possibility that a child will continue to suffer or that a child will die sooner rather than later? I think recently I have come to believe that one can always have hope...hope that there is a possibility that what is longed for, what is prayed for may happen. May. It may be in a natural course of events, or it may occur under circumstances that fails all 'reasonable' explanations. We usually call this a miracle and I think the longer one lives the more likely one can see or recall things, wonderful things, that seemed virtually impossible but actually ended up happening.

For me this has now come down to being able to hope in the possiblity, to hope that the nearly impossible-to-achieve outcome may happen, and still, still accept what actually does happen No Matter What. I can believe in the power of prayer and yet understand that sometimes what the prayer does is 'heal' the heart and soul of the person praying.

For all of this Bekah, I love you for being willing to be the teacher. You are truly loved.